Former inmates did heist to bail out buddy

FORT WORTH (AP) - Two former jail inmates are back in prison Saturday, accused of robbing two banks last month for bail money to get a third inmate out of jail, police said.

The scheme, which helped them raise at least $10,000, briefly succeeded. The third man was released from jail Wednesday after his attorney posted bail, but was arrested Friday after less than three days of freedom.

Kenyon Grady Cox, 30, was released Wednesday but removed a monitoring device within minutes of leaving jail, authorities said. A warrant was then issued for his arrest.

Fugitive officers spotted Cox leaving a pawn shop Thursday with the two former inmates: Thomas Leon Jochum Jr., 44, of Arlington and Donald Mark Scott, 27, of Lake Worth. Jochum and Scott were arrested, but Cox escaped. He was arrested Friday in Parker County.

After Jochum and Scott were arrested Thursday, one of them told police they had robbed a bank in Saginaw on Dec. 20 and another in Blue Mound on Dec. 22, Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said. A pellet gun found in the pawn shop parking lot when they were arrested appears similar to a pellet gun used in the robberies, Fowler said.

Jochum and Scott had hired an attorney to post bail for Cox, authorities said. They made several cash payments totaling at least $10,000 to Fort Worth lawyer Jim Shaw, who then posted bail for Cox. Shaw said he did not know where the money came from.

"I've been doing this 32 years, and I've never had anything like this happen," Shaw said.

Cox, Jochum and Scott were all in the Tarrant County Jail in late 2007 facing child sex charges, according to court records. Scott was released Dec. 19 on $20,000 bail and Jochum was released Nov. 30 on probation, said Sgt. Don Kraul of the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department.